Month: April 2009

When John Lucas, Elizabeth Eisner Reding and Mike Reding, three trusted gastronomes who frequent this blog, heartily recommended I try Best Lee’s, my initial reaction was, “they’ve got to be kidding.” Our sole visit to Best Lee’s in Rio Rancho exemplified the mediocrity and boring “sameness” that plagues many of New Mexico’s Chinese restaurants–a homogeneity my discerning friend Bill Resnik refers to as “copycat menus full of candied, fried and breaded mystery meats that all taste the same.”

It’s a good thing Chinese Restaurant News (CRN) doesn’t read my blog. CRN, a highly respected monthly trade publication serving the more than 43,100 Chinese restaurants across America, selected Best Lee’s as one of America’s best Chinese restaurants for 2008. In fact, during the “year of the mouse,” Best Lee’s earned distinction as one the top 100 Chinese restaurants in the categories of “Top 100 Local Favorites” and “Top 100 Overall Excellence.” The latter is the publication’s highest honor.

The “Local Favorites” award is presented to restaurants which have “proven their success over many years and through difficult circumstances.” Such honorees must also “maintain an important community presence and have a significant and devoted customer base.” The award for “Overall Excellence” is accorded to restaurants with the highest overall score in all areas (food, decor, atmosphere, service, cleanliness and presentation and value). Awards are based on “mystery diner” evaluations and public votes.”

One of America's top 100 Chinese restaurants?

Interestingly one of the selection criterion used by CRN to assess nominated restaurants is that 50 percent of the menu items must be “related to Chinese cuisine.” Note that the criterion says nothing about authenticity and tradition. Most Chinese restaurants in America would be disqualified from this prestigious competition if required to serve an entirely authentic, wholly traditional Chinese menu. Chinese restaurants across the fruited plain have made “faux” Chinese entrees ubiquitous–and that’s the way American’s like them.

Among the faux items on the menus at many Chinese restaurants are the pu-pu platter, a cutesy appetizer first served as a gimmick at Trader Vic’s, an Americanized Polynesian restaurant. Chop suey and chow mein, two Chinese-American dishes were invented during the California Gold Rush to feed large number of miners cheaply. The fortune cookie was invented in Los Angeles and remains a strange concept in China.

In fact, much of what passes as Chinese cuisine in Chinese restaurants throughout the western world would appall a traditional Chinese gourmet. In addition to the aforementioned dishes, some of America’s favorite sweet and sour concoctions are sometimes made with such Western ameliorants as barbecue sauce, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, cooking sherry and other non-traditional ingredients. Other ingredients which would stupefy a traditionalist include canned fruit (including fruit cocktail) and vegetables, as well as monosodium glutamate (MSG), an addictive additive.

Delicious dumplings

It wasn’t its lack of commitment to authenticity that turned us off Best Lee’s. It was the lack of deliciousness in the appetizers and entrees we had that prompted my less than favorable review. Still, the fact that trusted readers raved about Best Lee’s made me wonder if I could have been entirely mistaken in my initial assessment of Best Lee’s or whether we visited during an anomalous “off-night” courtesy of Murphy’s Law.

Best Lee’s certainly didn’t have an off-night when we visited in April, 2009. In fact we were so impressed that we visited again two days later. These visits were not to the Rio Rancho restaurant, however, but to its second instantiation. This one is in Albuquerque just a block north of Paseo del Norte and Wyoming. It’s the restaurant recommended to me.

The Albuquerque version of Best Lee’s is ensconced in a modern shopping center, an amalgamation of niche retail stores in an area experiencing considerable urban infill. Its signage is suffixed with “Gourmet Asian Food,” a claim the Rio Rancho restaurant doesn’t make. The restaurant’s interior includes many of the stereotypical trappings of the modern Chinese restaurant which is much more reserved than its older predecessors.

Beef Satay

This Best Lee’s has something the Rio Rancho rendition doesn’t have–a “Chinese uncle.” At least that’s what the bespectacled waiter with the perpetual impish smile calls himself. A peripatetic presence, Chinese uncle visits every table, spicing his recommendations with his own version of Confucius-like wisdom. With an ambassadorial flair, he also lavishes compliments on his guests (I think calling me “nice mustache man” is a compliment) and seems especially adept at entertaining children (of all ages).

The menu includes a 200 percent guarantee that “we don’t use MSG” and a 100 percent guarantee that “we use vegetable oil.” That menu is a veritable compendium of Chinese and Americanized Chinese favorites as well as more than a perfunctory smattering of other Asian (mostly Thai) favorites.

Appetizers include steamed or pan-fried homemade pork or vegetable dumplings. These half-moon shaped dumplings are much larger than most dumplings, in part because they are engorged with a generous amount of well-seasoned sausage. At eight to an order, this appetizer almost ensures you’ll be taking left-overs home with you. The dumplings are served with a light semi-sweet and slightly tangy sauce (not that you really need it) with soy sauce as its base and other complementary ingredients such as green onion, chili and ginger.

Red Curry Soup with Tofu

Interestingly, Best Lee’s offers an appetizer portion red curry tofu soup, something we haven’t seen at any Thai restaurant in Albuquerque. It’s an excellent soup, served steaming hot and brimming with flavor. Coconut-infused with the rich, fresh flavor of aromatic red curry, it is the type of comfort food soup whose flavor increases exponentially as the temperature outside drops. The vegetables swimming in the bowl are fresh and delicious while the tofu inherits the flavor of the rich amalgam. If the soup is this good, it’s likely other Thai offerings are, too.

Another Thai appetizer sure to please is satay, available in beef or chicken. These little skewers of thinly sliced meat are perhaps the most popular street food in Thailand, but you’ll also find them in high-end restaurants. The beef is marinated in an amalgam of complementary ingredients intended to give it a balance of sweet, savory and rich flavors. The satay is served with a bowl of peanut sauce, a version that is not nearly as cloying as served at many Thai restaurants.

Appetizers are apportioned for sharing and even when split between two, the portions are prodigious and you risk filling up before your main entrees are delivered to your table. It’s a risk worth taking because the appetizers are delicious and the take-home portions reheat wonderfully. In fact, reheating some things just seems to bring out even more of its flavor richness.

House Pan Fried Noodles with Mango Sauce

I’ve never quite understood the concept of crispy, pan-fried noodles; more specifically why you would eat something that’s only going to reconstitute when you add a sauce to it. My Kim loves them–as much in their crispy state as when they’re soft and “noodley,’ but to my obviously unacculturated taste buds, the crispy noodles are reminiscent of Durkee’s french fried onion strings (which midwesterners add to green bean casseroles).

Best Lee’s pan-fried noodles can be made with your choice of shrimp, chicken or mixed vegetables with the “chef’s delicious sauce.” The ever-accommodating kitchen staff will tailor this dish to your tastes, such as making it with a brown mango sauce and excluding or adding more of any vegetable you desire. The taste combination of mango sauce and red onions, by the way, is surprisingly delicious.

Plating at Best Lee’s is an eye-pleasing art form. Everything is where it should be for optimum harmony, balance and appearance, a sort of plate syzygy. The balance of color, texture and appearance makes diners give pause to reflect on how great everything looks. Their taste buds will follow suit, confirming what their eyes are telling them.

Scallops & Beef, Shanghai Style

It may be hard to tell through all the steam just how esthetically appealing the dish pictured above is. It’s scallops and beef Shanghai style from the chef’s special section of the menu. Large sea scallops with flank steak and assorted vegetables in a brown sauce are served on a sizzling plate. Even had my camera been able to penetrate that veil of steam, a photo wouldn’t do justice to this entree.

The scallops are indeed large. They’re also sweet and delicious. The flank steak is not as tough and chewy as this particular cut of beef tends to be and while you’d never call it tender, you certainly won’t need the jaws of a boxer to masticate it. Now, many Chinese dishes are prepared with a “brown sauce” but that term is rather vague because there is no standard way to prepare it. Best Lee’s version seems to have its basis in beef broth, but also hints of brown sugar, garlic and other ingredients. Whatever its composition, it’s a worthy sauce.

During our inaugural visit Chinese uncle paraded by our table to show us an artfully appealing fish on a platter destined for a table in a different section of the restaurant. Showcasing that dish had his desired effect–we were back in two days to try it.

Rex Sole, a fabulous fish

There are, in fact, several steamed or crispy fish entrees on the menu: yellow fish, red snapper or rex sole. Chinese uncle confided that the rex sole was the best of the three. Quite often when the wait staff effusively pushes an entree, it’s because that entree is the most expensive or the entree closest to an expiring shelf life, but when Chinese uncle recommends something, he speaks with conviction.

Rex sole is a member of the flounder family. In fact, this small fish (normally under two pounds) is considered one of the tastiest fish in the flounder family with a sweet, delicate white flesh. It is a flat fish with both eyes on the same side of its head. The fillets from the bottom side of the sole tend to be thinner and white-fleshed while fillets from the top side are thicker and darker (grayish).

Instead of having to extricate the delicate white flesh from between the sole’s quill-like bones (a delicate operation requiring surgeon-like precision), several chunky fillets are served atop the flat fish’s carcass. The fillets are lightly breaded and served with either a ginger scallion sauce or a “chef’s special sauce.” The latter is reminiscent of the type of Vietnamese fish sauce sold in Asian grocery stores. It is more sweet than tangy with the consistency of a light syrup, but it complements the fish very well.

Pad Thai

From the Southeast Asia Style section of the menu comes one of the most popular entrees entrees served in Thai restaurants throughout America. Pad Thai is actually one of Thailand’s national dishes and similar to satay, is equally at home as a street food or served in a nice restaurant.

Best Lee’s version of this stir-fried rice noodle dish is fairly standard and hints of tangy fish sauce and tamarind, piquant chili peppers and other complementary flavors. It is garnished with crushed peanuts and served with lime which you’re free to squeeze onto the dish.

Not at all standard are the chocolate covered fortune cookies, a delightful twist we’ve seen at only one other Albuquerque Chinese restaurant. The chocolate actually gives the light, delicate cookie some substance (and many would argue, taste). It’s a nice treat to end a meal.

Chocolate covered fortune cookies

Best Lee’s is one of the better Chinese restaurants in Albuquerque and confirms something I state in my FAQs page–that diners should take a “caveat emptor” approach to any restaurant review written by any critic (even me). I was wrong about Best Lee’s (at least the one in Albuquerque) and am big enough (by about two pounds after two vey good meals at the restaurant) to admit it.

In its April, 2009 edition Saveur magazine feted “12 restaurants that matter,” profiling a dozen restaurants that “represent the best of dining in America today.” Although that title may at first browse sound a bit condescending, the premise of the article was that restaurants are special places. “Everybody has to eat, but going out to eat is a choice.”

Americans certainly exercise that freedom of choice with their wallets and purses. According to the National Restaurant Association, forty-five percent of adults surveyed indicate restaurants are an integral part of their lifestyle and one in three say they’re not eating out as often as they would like. The Association reports that nearly half of Americans’ food budget in 2009 will be spent in restaurants, accounting for a total economic impact of $1.5 trillion. New Mexico’s restaurants are forecast to post the fourth highest restaurant sales growth in the country during 2009 with a 3.3 percent increase (amounting to $2.7 billion).

Given her choice, fellow gastronome Barbara Trembath will choose, like me, to spend much of her disposable income at mom-and-pop restaurants. With tastes very similar to mine, she often eschews the “anointed” restaurants everyone visits and combs through off-the-beaten-path neighborhoods for culinary finds. Among other restaurants’ she’s introduced me to are the humble and homey Hua Chang and a little place I have yet to review which serves “the best damn cupcakes on the planet…little, tiny, deceptive mouthfuls of sugary happiness.”

The interior of La Bamba Grill

When Barbara told me about a hidden restaurant in Bernalillo I “really have to try,” her credibility with me meant bumping several other restaurants on my list and setting off to the City of Coronado for La Bamba Grill. Located on North Camino del Pueblo less than half a mile north of heavily trafficked Highway 550, La Bamba Grill is easy to miss. It’s situated in a fairly nondescript edifice which formerly housed a paleteria among other short-lived businesses. Its signage is relatively austere, hand-lettered with none of the flash and panache many restaurants seem to need to draw diners in.

Beneath the restaurant’s name is the sub-title “traditional Mexican food,” a point reenforced on the menu: “our dishes consist of only the best recipes of traditional Mexican cuisine infused with the authentic ingredients of Mexico.” These points of emphasis regarding tradition are evident in the authenticity of dishes coming from a highly skilled and well practiced kitchen. The restaurant is owned by Flor De Aquino, an effervescent lady whose roots are in the tradition-rich Chiapas-Veracruz region.

La Bamba Grill is a much more attractive restaurant than its predecessors. It took several months of work painting, laying down tile and finding homey touches to make guests feel welcome. In one instance they may have done too good a job with the homey touches. Displayed on a baker’s rack type of shelf are several handmade and hand-painted dolls fashioned primarily of corn husks. Garlic cloves serve as the dolls’ heads while garlic stems are tied into braids. The dolls have been literally flying off the shelves courtesy of diners who just have to have them.

Surprises continue onto the almuerzo (lunch) menu. They include mole enchiladas, stuffed corn sopaipillas, and tacos, but not the perfunctory tacos served at most Mexican restaurants. We’re talking tacos de Barbacoa, tacos al Pastor, and tacos de Cochinita Pibil. Four come per order or you can mix-and-match as we did (pictured below).

You’re not seated long before a basket of fresh, crispy chips and salsa are brought to your table. The salsa is freshly made and has the type of piquancy you need when you’re having a hard time getting started in the morning. Its piquancy has its basis in jalapeños. Other ingredients include garlic, salt, pepper and the fresh, vibrant taste of white onion and cilantro. The salsa is served in a plastic molcajete and is so good you’ll probably polish off two bowlfuls.

A triumvirate of terrific tacos

A triumvirate of terrific tacos are what Barbara’s family had during their inaugural visit and she recommended them highly. Our mix-and-match order consisted of two tacos de cochinita pibil, one taco al pastor and one taco de Barbacoa. All are stuffed generously onto fresh, pliable and warm corn tortillas. Sides of lime slices and a plastic tubful of white onions and cilantro accompany the tacos.

Cochinita pibil is a traditional (there’s that word again) slow-roasted pork dish from Yucatan. Marinated in strongly acidic citrus juices, the pork acquires an addictive taste and is tenderized by the high acidity of the marinade. At La Bamba, these tacos are served with pickled red onions and a green habanero salsa that may bring tears to your eyes if you use it too liberally. My standard for cochinita pibil nonpareil in Albuquerque is El Norteño, but La Bamba’s version is a very good alternative.

Also quite traditional in Mexico are tacos de Barbacoa (not to be mistaken with Barbacoa de cabeza which is made with cow’s head slow-roasted). Barbacoa might be loosely translated as a form of Mexican barbecue. La Bamba’s version of Barbacoa features barbecued beef with onions, cilantro and a tomatillo salsa. They’re quite good.

Mole Enchiladas

The tacos al pastor are also almost completely traditional save for the fact that the pork isn’t cooked on a vertical spit the way tacos al pastor are made in Mexico. La Bamba’s tacos are made with grilled marinated pork served with tangy pineapple, cilantro, onions and tomatillo salsa. The pork is succulent with a subtle marinade that accentuates its natural flavors.

In my humble estimation, New Mexicans (especially those of us from the north) don’t give Mole the respect it deserves. Maybe it’s because so many of us grew up believing it was a poor substitute for our red chile. My appreciation for the complexities and subtleties of a great Mole have grown substantially over the years as I’ve been introduced to some of it’s delicious variations in restaurants from Puebla, Mexico to Chicago, Illinois to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Mole is a thick, rich, sweet and fragrant chocolate-tinged sauce made with different types of chile (some recipes calling for as many as ten varieties), fried bread, spices and as many as thirty other ingredients. Preparation is a time-consuming, labor intensive process which is why it is usually made in large batches. Most Mexican women have their own recipe passed down over the generations. If you’ve had good Mole, you’ll always remember it.

Caldo de Res

La Bamba’s Mole is memorable! Four corn tortillas are engorged with ground beef then smothered in mole and topped with onions and a Mexican powdered cheese much like parmesan. The only thing which could have made it better is shredded beef instead of ground beef, but that’s a nit. This is the type of Mole which brings a smile of satisfaction to your lips and a yearning to have it again soon.

Perhaps the epitome of Mexican comfort food is found in Caldo de Res, a bowl of beef ribs, corn on the cob, boiled potatoes and assorted vegetables in a flavorful beef broth. There’s absolutely nothing fancy about caldo de res. It’s basically a beef soup with very few, if any, spices. It relies on an almost superfluity of beef and vegetables for flavor. La Bamba’s version reminded me of the type of caldo a family in Mexico might have at home. My friend Ruben compared La Bamba’s rendition to what he grew up with in south Texas. That’s high praise indeed.

What my adovada adoring amigo and I didn’t like was the carne adovada. Ruben, whose holy grail quest to find the best carne adovada in the world has taken us to some premier pantheons of porcine preparation, has become as sensitized to the olfactory offensive odor and malevolent taste of cumin as I am. Even though we were assured only a small amount of cumin was used, one part per million of cumin is enough to ruin adovada in my mind. That’s a shame here because the pork used in this restaurant is as tender as a Perry Como love song.

Entomatados

Fortunately there are copious cumin free entrees on the menu such as the entomatadas con jamon, four folded tortillas with ham inside topped with green or red salsa served with beans and topped with a parmesan-like Mexican cheese. In the parlance of Mexican entrees, the “en” prefix followed by an ingredient such as “tomata” and suffixed with “adas” represent tortillas that have been sauced with the ingredient between the prefix and suffix (for example “en-chil-adas” means the tortilla is sauced with chile). Entomatadas are sauced with a tomato sauce quite different from Italian tomato sauces–sweeter and diffferently spiced.

The entomatadas are delicious (“muy rico” our waitress exclaimed when we ordered them) and the accompanying beans are very well seasoned. A side ramekin of salsa habanera was provided so we could pick our own level of piquancy (or in this case pain, which is a flavor in New Mexico). The salsa habanera was fiercely tempered and merciless. It started off innocuously then began a slow, endorphin-releasing and pleasurable pain.

The dessert menu includes only two items: natillas (pictured below) and flan. The natillas, served cold, are light and creamy, not nearly as sweet as many natillas in the Albuquerque area. Instead of raisins, the natillas are made with golden colored sultanas which are slightly sweeter than normal raisins. The cinnamon is also sparsely applied which allows the custard to be showcased.

Natillas

La Bamba’s beverage offerings include horchata and agua de sandia as well as Mexican Coke a Cola and Jaritos soft drinks.

There are many things about La Bamba Grill that might remind you of Mexico in all its culinary traditions. It’s the type of restaurant that really matters because it’s family owned and operated, simple and unadorned, authentic and traditional. It’s the type of restaurant you should choose to visit soon.

From the moment they first set foot in the Land of Enchantment, some people just “get it” or perhaps more precisely, New Mexico gets to them. It weaves its preternatural spell and stirs something deeply in those open enough to its calling. D. H. Lawrence said it best, “In the magnificent fierce morning of New Mexico one sprang awake, a new part of the soul woke up suddenly, and the old world gave way to a new.”

Other people don’t get it–and maybe they never will. In the early 1980s while attending the University of New Mexico, I encountered several “dormitory rats” who whined incessantly that “there’s nothing to do or see in New Mexico.” I befriended some of them, determined to help them discover the Land of Enchantment they were perhaps too close-minded to see. That usually entailed a day trip or two to the north-central mountains of New Mexico, but not to tourist laden Taos or Santa Fe.

Northern New Mexico is a spectacular canvass on which God painted perhaps the most awe-inspiring scenery in the state. Two break-taking drives, the High Road to Taos and the Enchanted Circle–are well known, but an even more wondrous peregrination starts like the High Road to Taos but diverts from my hometown of Peñasco to Mora.

Chips & Salsa at Sabroso's

Nestled in the very heart of the Sangre De Cristo mountain range beneath the serenity of clear azure skies and flowing with ice cold, pristene streams, Peñasco is on the “morning side” of the mountain where it is majestically backdropped by the Jicarita Peak which governs the skies like a sovereign queen perched on her throne keeping a vigiliant watch over her people.

Mora sits on the “twilight side of the hill” or more precisely, the back-side of the Jicarita. From that vantage point the Jicarita’s unique “little basket” shape isn’t discernible, but Mora is hardly short-changed when it comes to beauty. Like Peñasco, it is blessed with gurgling streams teeming with native German Brown and Cut Throat trout, sprawling green meadows and alfalfa fields which sustain large herds of livestock and hills that come to life with the sounds of wildlife.

Mora did have something Peñasco didn’t have–Hatcha’s Cafe, a frequent stopping off point in my guided tours of the “real” New Mexico. Hatcha is the Spanish word for “axe,” but even among Spanish-speaking residents of northern New Mexico, the restaurant’s name was pronounced “Hot Cha’s.” People came from miles around to eat at Hatcha’s, many even from Taos or Las Vegas, both of which are almost equidistant from Mora.

Grilled Avocado

Even when the beauty of northern New Mexico failed to ensnare the hearts of my charges, Hatcha’s won over their taste buds and sated their appetites like few restaurants in the Duke City ever did. For those most determined not to like New Mexico despite my best efforts, Hatcha’s may have been the highlight of their trip. Driving a couple hundred miles with nay-sayers (or as Spiro Agnew may have called them, nattering nabobs of negativity”) made it a highlight of my trips, too.

When we saw photos of Mora adorning the walls at Sabroso’s restaurant, memories of meals at Hatcha’s flooded my mind. It turns out Sabroso’s, which opened its doors in February, 2009, is owned by Geno and George Martinez of the Mora family which owned Hatcha’s for time immemorial. Sabroso’s is the story of two small-town boys sharing their version of the flavors of Northern New Mexico with the big city.

The Sabroso’s menu is a bit more sophisticated than that of many restaurants and family homes in northern New Mexico, but that really is no surprise. Hatcha’s menu was also fairly sophisticated for a rural enclave and included a nice beer and wine list. Sabroso’s has a tequila bar that will be the envy of many a restaurant.

Sabroso's Enchiladas

Sabroso’s menu includes many traditional New Mexico favorites along with the unique touches for which the Martinez brothers are known. If you love avocado, an appetizer sure to catch your attention is the grilled avocado, an avocado stuffed with pork and homemade pico de gallo topped with shredded cheese, lettuce and tomato served on a bed of fresh blue and yellow corn tortilla strips.

Unlike guacamole in which avocados are mashed and usually served either room-temperature or cold, these avocados are actually grilled. If anything, grilling avocados brings out even more of their inherent butter-like creaminess. Tender tendrils of flavorful shredded pork are the star of this appetizer. The pork is moist and delicious, a perfect vehicle for the pico de gallo which is made with green onions and chopped tomatoes.

It’s unfortunate that pork isn’t available on Sabroso’s enchiladas, two layered blue corn tortillas with your choice of chicken or beef smothered with chile and topped with sour cream, guacamole, shredded cheese, lettuce and tomato. It’s not as though the beef is bad. In fact, it’s Angus beef…but it is beef and beef is everywhere and beef is beef no matter what its pedigree might be and no matter how well seasoned. The shredded pork is several orders of magnitude better. The other recommendation I would have for the Martinez brothers is to add more piquancy to the red chile. Liven it up the way people in Northern New Mexico like it.

Sabroso's Blueberry Crisp

Entrees are served with your choice of any of two sides: pinto beans, Spanish rice, calabasitas, fried cabbage, grilled spinach or posole. Forget the Spanish rice and pinto beans; you can have those anywhere (albeit maybe not as good). Opt instead for one of the unique choices. The fried cabbage, for example, is excellent. Unlike Irish cabbage which tends to have a room-clearing odor, the Martinez version has a sweet aroma and an equally sweet flavor.

Entrees are also served with a basket of warm sopaipillas which my friend Ruben and his wife consider the best they’ve ever had. The sopaipillas are pillowy and puffy like most sopaipillas, but they’re also thicker so when you open them up, steam wafts upward in greater, more delicious quantities. With “real” honey, they would be even better.

A nice dessert option is Sabroso’s crisp, a bowl of vanilla ice cream topped with your favorite fruit topping and bite-sized sopaipillas, whipped cream and cinnamon sugar. Available fruit toppings include apple, cherry, blueberry, peach, strawberry and chocolate. I’ve got my fingers crossed that two Mora staples–chokecherries and raspberries–will be added at some point. Nowhere in New Mexico are these berries grown better.

When you get to the part of the menu describing Sabroso’s family style dining, you might get a bit of sticker shock at seeing price ranges from the $50s to the $100s, but when you consider that a small family-style platter serves 4-6 and a large platter serves 7-10, it’s a bargain. The family style menu includes Truchas trout, Salmon Sapello, Sea Bass, Carnitas, Chacon Chicken and much more. Family-style platters are also available in portions (and prices) for one.

Restaurant critics, whether we write online reviews or are published in print somewhere, must think we’re so smart. We use polysyllabic (there’s one) words when a more prosaic (another one) word will do. We endeavor (yet another one, but you get the picture) to wax eloquent every time we describe something we obviously like or disdain. Here’s one critic who’s eating humble pie courtesy of Erica Ruth, an erudite (I can’t stop myself) Duke City diner who, in recommending a favorite restaurant, gave me one of the best reviews I’ve read in a long time.

When Erica wrote to me and told me of an “amazing hidden treasure in the Heights” serving the “best burgers I have had in Albuquerque,” I asked her what it was about those burgers that made them the best. Here’s her reply. “I think they’re great because they’re one, the perfect size–not so thick that you can’t take a big bite out of them, and not so skimpy in width that the bun envelopes it. Two, they are always cooked to perfection. I am pretty sure the patties are hand formed.

Albuquerque’s Coyote Diner is a hidden treasure.

When you order them, they don’t have any filler, so they ALMOST fall apart–almost being the key. They hold their form nicely, even if they don’t look as pretty as a processed patty. They’re so juicy that they soak the bun (in fact this is my only complaint about the burgers–a nice, thick onion roll would suit them better than the buns they use). The buffalo burger is amazing, and if you order it with chile (like any self-respecting New Mexican), you’re as close to burger perfection as you’re going to get without driving to San Antonio to eat at the Owl Cafe. seriously. I cannot rave enough about this place, and I truly hope it survives.”

Wow! I couldn’t have said it better myself–and that’s the truth. Without the sometimes gaseous hyperbole critics sometimes use, Erica motivated me to bump the Coyote Diner ahead of other restaurants on my list. She did my job better than I do.

Green chile cheese Buffalo Burger

There’s not much I can add to Erica’s description of the buffalo burger other than to confirm her high opinion of this two-fisted treasure and to add that it’s even better when you add green chile (isn’t everything). Just look at the picture above to see for yourself as close to burger perfection as you’ll find in Albuquerque. It truly is one of the most flavorful burgers I’ve had in the Duke City, a burger worthy of frequent repeat visits to the humble diner which opened in the summer of 2007.

The Coyote Diner is ensconced in the Louisiana Plaza Shopping Center. It’s on the southwest quadrant of the shopping center and if you blink as you approach it on Montgomery, you’re bound to miss it. That would be a shame. Open Monday through Friday from 8AM to 3PM and on weekends from 10AM to 2PM, it’s not a restaurant that will beckon you with over-the-top signage or with sheer size. This is a tiny diner with a limited number of tables.

Beef Stroganoff Soup

The elongated dining room is comparatively stark in terms of decorative touches, but if you’re a fan of vintage metal signage (the kind with which some of fossils us grew up), it’ll be a treat to reminisce at such signage as a Dr. Pepper sign extolling the beverage’s “good for life at 10-2-4.”

Note: Dr. Pepper’s trademarked 10-2-4 aren’t random numbers, by the way. They represent the times of day when the human body needs a little “pick-me-up” to avoid an energy slump.) The other noticeable aspect of the dining room’s decor is the red and white 50s style banquettes.

The Coyote Nachos

Okay, we’ve established that the buffalo burgers are wonderful, but what about other menu items? I can tell you in all sincerity that the Coyote Diner is not a one-trick pony. If the items we had are any indication, this is a restaurant with a palate pleasing menu. Discover that for yourself with an order of Coyote Nachos, a bed of crisp tortilla chips topped with cheese, pinto beans, onions, tomatoes and green chile all served with a side of salsa. You can add beef or chicken for a mere pittance. Alternatively, you can try chips and salsa (pictured below). The salsa is pureed but has a nice bite and the redolence of fresh cilantro.

The menu does commit one cardinal offense in that it spells New Mexico’s state vegetable “chili.” That misspelling usually means committing the culinary faux pas of preparing the chile with cumin, that accursed despoiler of great chile. Alas, cumin does rear its ugly head on a dish that would otherwise have been outstanding. A daily lunch special of buffalo enchiladas prepared with an otherwise memorable chile would be extraordinary were it not for the acerbic taste (and even worse aftertaste) of cumin.

Salsa and chips

The perfectly seasoned buffalo ground beef is wonderful as are the layered corn tortillas topped with sour cream and melted cheese. The accompanying pinto beans and roasted potatoes are terrific. This is a dish that would be competitive with the enchiladas at many a New Mexican restaurant were it not for the cumin.

If you ever happen upon the Coyote Diner on a day in which a lunch appetizer special is deep-fried green beans, order at least one portion. Having lived almost eight years in the deep South where everything is fried, seeing deep-fried green beans on the menu widened my eyes in anticipation. The green beans are lightly battered and despite being deep fried have the snap of freshness at each bite. They come served with a ramekin of ranch dressing which lends a nice contrast to the sweetness of the beans.

Patty melt and some of the best onion rings in New Mexico.

Specials of the day certainly earn the sobriquet “special.” When you think about it, beef stroganoff soup is a darned good idea, so why don’t you ever see it on any menu. We never had until an April, 2009 visit to the Coyote Diner when it was offered as a special. This is an idea perhaps ahead of its time, an idea executed very well. The soup had the characteristic richness of Stroganoff with New Mexico green chile thrown in for added depth of flavor. Talk about comfort food! This is an excellent soup which would be a starring attraction on many a restaurant’s menu.

Recent commercials for one of the ubiquitous burger chains touts its “home style melt” and would have you believe it’s so good that enraged mothers are after the King’s head (as if you hadn’t already guessed the commercials are for Burger King). Maybe it’s a good thing those hormonally influenced mothers don’t try the Coyote Diner’s patty melt or they might chase after Mark, the restaurant’s affable owner. It’s the real thing–a hand-formed patty, grilled onions and mustard on dark rye bread. It’s as good a patty melt as we’ve had in the Duke City.

No matter what you order, you’ve got to get a side of the onion rings. They’re among the very best in Albuquerque bar none. Lightly coated (beer battered) and golden brown, their prominent taste is of sweet, delicious onion. Even if you order pancakes from the breakfast menu, have the onion rings on the side. You’ll be happy you did.

The Coyote Diner is, as Erica described it, a hidden treasure. It’s too good to stay hidden for long.